Collector car shows are virtually the
second office of Bryan W. Shook.

He grew up attending car shows and
restoring cars with his father. Right now
he’s working on a full restoration of a 1967

Camaro convertible. And when he’s not
in his garage, he represents car collectors
from around the world.

Earlier this year, the Dethlefs-Pykosh
Law Group attorney put together a $1.5
million deal to bring racecars from Europe
to the U.S. He also researched the history
of a ’ 53 Corvette for a client, and the
vehicle eventually sold for a near-world-record price: $660,000.

Shook has worked with everything from
horseless carriages to modern roadsters
and all the muscle cars in between. His
clients face a range of issues involving
ownership, vehicle history and acquisition.

“A lot of times in the classic car world,
cars are bought through very loose
partnerships,” says Shook. “This is nearly

100 percent a cash business. We’re talkingsix-, seven-, eight-figure transactionsdone in cash.”It is, however, a hobby that can be ripefor fraud. Shook’s clients include buyerswho discover that the vehicle they justbought was misrepresented to them.

One scheme involves what’s called a
re-body. “Some unscrupulous restorers
will take another car, [a] much better
quality or condition vehicle, and take the
VIN number off of the rusty one, and put
it on the good one and then build the
car around that VIN number, so that it
resembles the original,” says Shook, who
has even been called to help police figure
out where the other VINs could be or how
title washing may have occurred.

Some of his clients choose to revokeacceptance of such a car. If they choose tosue, though, Shook, who has experienceas pro hac counsel in 14 states, is morethan prepared. He’s usually able to workout a pretrial settlement. By combininghis knowledge of antique and collectorcar laws—which vary by state—and theUniform Commercial Code, “I understandhow the fraud occurs, and I understandit to the same level as the defendantdoes. So it’s really difficult for them tospin a story when I know how they did it,”he says. “If you know how the bank wasrobbed, it’s easier to prove the case.”Fraud cases aren’t the only thing onShook’s dashboard, though. One clientwas driving to a car show in Hersheywhen police pulled him over and citedhim for not having the proper licenseplate on his antique vehicle. Turns outthe plate was fine—it was just the 1907original. “The vehicle was registered andlicensed in Virginia, [which] permittedthe use of certain style of license platesthat the Pennsylvania local authoritieswere not familiar with and didn’trecognize. So eventually we got the casedismissed,” he says.

Shook began steering his career
toward this niche practice area during
his time at Widener University School of
Law in Harrisburg. Every time he heard
of automotive law, he says, it dealt with
personal injury and insurance, rather than
the cars themselves. “I said to myself,
‘there’s a whole area of automotive law
that’s just not discussed,’” says Shook.

Joining Dethlefs-Pykosh in Camp Hill
after graduation made for a perfect fit.

“We’ve got two of the largest antiquecollector car venues in the world within 15miles of my office,” Shook says. “Carlisleand Hershey play host to the largest andmost well-attended collector car events inthe world.”Shook’s clients hail from places asfar away as Germany, Puerto Rico andUruguay, but his cars are all-American.

He calls his 1959 Chevy truck his hot rod.
He also owns a 1972 Chevrolet El Camino,
a 1976 Corvette, several vintage Harley-Davidsons and that ’ 67 Camaro. Shook
and his wife—who has her own 1956

Mercedes-Benz 190 SL—welcomed their
first child in February, and now Shook is
looking forward to his own father-son car
show trips.

“All these little aspects of [my practice]
make it so that I really enjoy going to
work,” he says. “I play with cars all day.